I listened to the audiobook of this via NetGalley and I found it fascinating. It’s the story of Howard Unruh who in September 1949 shot thirteen people in twelve minutes on the block where he lived. The book is mainly told through the eyes of Raymond Havens, who was just twelve at the time and who witnessed the murders but who had also previously being something of a friend to Raymond. We also get passages from Howard’s diary, which give us a sense of who he was. I felt like the author gave a lot of information as to why Howard may have done what he did, and it felt like I was being pushed to have sympathy for him. I did feel like I understood more of who he was by the end but I didn’t feel any sympathy because what he did was horrific and there is no justification for that. I did feel for others whose points of view were spread throughout the book though. We hear testimony from the victim’s families, and from Howard’s mother. I found this book really interesting and if you like true crime then I would recommend it.

This is the story about the first mass shooting in the United States, when Howard Burton killed thirteen people in his town of East Camden, New Jersey. He had made a list of people that he was going to kill, but that did not stop him from killing others not on the list including children.

The author tries to piece together how Howard became a mass murderer. One of the psychologists describes this as a perfect storm, something they don't think will ever happen again.. Little did they know of course.

Unfortunately I found myself underwhelmed. This story did not hold my interest until very late in the book when we start getting into Howard's personal life.

Thank you netgalley and Thread for giving me in advance for you copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

I was fascinated by this story, which told of America’s first mass shooting. I thought the format used; telling the story through the eyes of those affected, worked well. Much of the story is told by Raymond, a young witness to some of the killings and neighbour of the killer Howard Unruh. We hear from Unruh’s mother Frieda. Using police and psychiatric reports we hear how this was not a man born a monster, but a man pushed over the brink by a number of outside factors including PTSD from war, bullying and attitudes to homosexuality. A war veteran, Howard has been living a secret life as a homosexual in nearby Philadelphia, away from the prying eyes of his neighbours. I almost felt sympathy for this man, belittled and bullied relentlessly as he was. The story bring us up to present day. Towards the end though I felt the tale was too drawn out and a little repetitive. Even back then there were moves to tighten gun laws yet little has changed since. These are events we can all learn lessons from.

I’d never heard of Howard Unruh and his “walk of death” in Camden in 1949, so my interest was piqued by this book.

Told from the viewpoints of 12 year old Raymond, friend and witness, and Howard’s mother, this book delves into the backgrounds of the people and events that culminated in a 12 minute spree that left 13 dead, including children.

I found this different from the usual true crime I read - rather than a straightforward recital of events, this was told from the perspective of people close to Unruh, based on diaries, reports, records, and interviews. It made for a story that was more personal, and you felt for everybody affected by the shooting and at the same time frustrated that things ended up the way that they did. I finished the book with a sense of sadness at the lives that were wasted and destroyed due to the sheer pettiness that led to such a tragedy.

I received a copy of the audiobook, which I really enjoyed. I felt the narrator really made the characters come alive, and I could even tell which character’s POV it was based on how he spoke - Raymond was slightly higher, energetic, curious and naive whereas Frieda’s sections were lower and sadder, her confusion about her son and his choices clear.

I felt this was a really well written book, and definitely worth a read for true crime or psychology fans. And the audio is worth a listen to as well!

Definitely and interesting and very disturbing story. I learned a lot from this and never heard of this story until now. Highly recommend if you like true crime

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an advanced audio copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

Murder in the neighborhood is the story of the mass shooting in New Jersey in 1949 carried out by Howard Unruh. Most of the story of the actual event is a first-hand account from Raymond. Ray was a child at the time of the shooting and was present for several of the murders. The rest of the story is told from a huge amount of research and interviews done by Ellen J Green.

While much of the story and setup for the shooting was really interesting, I found my mind wandering as the narrative went on and on. I think a lot of this came from the author's explanations of Howard's motivations. It came across to me like I should have sympathy for Howard and maybe even understand why he would one day just go out and shoot 13 men, women, and children-- a completely un-understandable act. While Howard had a difficult childhood and obviously had trauma from serving in WWII, I thought we spent MUCH too much time trying to understand Howard and not nearly enough time learning about his victims and their lives that were cut short.

The narrator for this title was perfectly fine. He didn't stand out in any way for me-- good or bad. Overall, I wanted to like this book a lot more than I did. I left the book feeling indifferent about the story and the narrator. My one word descriptor for this book would be "underwhelming."

An absolutely mesmerizing true crime novel told from two perspectives and covering centuries of information, sentencing, growth, and development. I loved every minute of it!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4 stars for this brilliant narration of one of America’s first mass shootings.

I didn't know what to expect going into this book having never read a true crime before.
It has dual perspectives and was mesmerizing.

This true crime event from 1949 was not what I expected when I requested the audiobook from Netgalley. It is a dual perspective story from one of the eyewitnesses of the mass shooting and the mother of the shooter. Raymond was only 12 but he knew Howard quite well compared to the people in their small town. It was through his story of the events before and after that was so compelling to me. Raymond took us on the journey of who, why and how so completely but the style of this narrative was so effective because the other side which was his mother, Freda.

Freda showed us what happened inside the home and mind of Howard. It was also via her perspective that we could understand how Howard was driven to the edge by neighbours and his own mind. It was fascinating to see the perspective an adult has in a situation of trauma paired with a preteens. The focus points are different in the aftermath as well as the shooting but they show a full story when put together.

The audiobook was a great way to read this story and I found myself just sitting in my car after a drive so I could finish the next chapter. I just couldn’t wait to listen some more and find out the next part of the story!

I received an arc via Netgalley in exchange for a honest review.

This true crime book is a little different than any true crime I’ve read before. It’s partially told from the 12 year old boy who befriended the murderer. So it’s unique to most crime books where you are seeing the characters through an adults perspective. The book was very interesting to me, it happened so long ago, but it’s really not any different than any tragic mass shooting in today’s society.

If you’re a fan of true crime I would recommend giving this one a try, it was definitely an interesting listen. And I did enjoy the audio as well.

It was a decent listen.
It kept me reading .but it’s not something I would read again.

I do recommend

My thanks to Thread Audio for a review copy via NetGalley of the unabridged audiobook edition of ‘Murder in the Neighborhood’ by Ellen J. Green in exchange for an honest review. The audiobook was narrated by John Chancer.

This work of true crime nonfiction is subtitled ‘The true story of America’s first recorded mass shooting’. It chronicles the events of 6 September 1949, when 28 year-old Howard Barton Unruh shot thirteen people in less than twelve minutes on his block in East Camden, New Jersey.

The story is partially told through the eyes of 12-year-old Raymond Havens, who witnessed his neighbour Howard open fire on the customers inside the local barbershop. Raymond struggles with understanding why Howard did what he did.

In her Foreword Ellen Green writes of her interest in this shooting. She first heard about it from her mother, who had spent part of her childhood in East Camden and vividly recalled the day of the shooting and the events that followed.

She also details her sources including Howard’s diaries, police reports and psychiatric records and interviews with surviving family members to uncover the chilling story of this quiet loner who meticulously plotted his revenge on the neighbors who shunned him and became one of America’s first mass killers.

With respect to the audiobook, John Chancer is an experienced actor who has narrated many audiobooks. His delivery was strong and confident throughout, which I felt served to convey Green’s account of these events.

Overall, I found this an interesting read/listen. I hadn’t heard anything about this shooting previously and felt that Green did well in presenting the events as well as examining the roots of the epidemic of mass shootings in the USA.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for this advance listener copy in exchange for my honest review.

This book was very informative. I liked the way it was told from two different perspectives, a young boy who was a friend of the shooter and the shooter's mother. I'm very interested in mass shootings and the psychology of the people who commit them and I found this case to be fascinating.

I had not heard of this shooting and did not know anything about the country's first mass shooting. I almost think there was too much information packed into this book. I also think it would have benefitted from a male and female narrator. It would have helped me keep the narration straight. While this book was good, I didn't find it as riveting as Columbine by Dave Cullen. The story was just as devastating, but it was told differently.

All in all, 3.75 stars. Decent narration, but a bit long.

You know it is going to be a good book when the author writes in such a way that you absolutely feel empathy for the person [Howard Barton Unruh] who shot 13 people in 12 minutes. This was that kind of book [I have only ever read a book that did this one other time - Jodi Picoult's "Nineteen Minutes" about a fictional school shooting. I had the same struggle then as I did with this one - HOW do you justify the empathy for someone who does something so heinous? I still do not have the answer for that] and the story is deep and compelling and a lesson is what can happen when a person who is odd but quiet, a war veteran [he fought at the Battle of the Bulge, which would have messed with anyone], is bullied relentlessly by the very people that were around him every day that one day he just snapped. Do I condone what he did? Absolutely not. Nothing justifies killing. That said, one can see how it happened. These people were cruel and brutal to him and his mother, and add in mental illness and PTSD and one can see just how it all unfolded [it should be noted here that Howard Unruh was never violent again, not even when the mental hospital he was in erupted in riots - he was one of the inmates that was not involved and didn't engage].

The author does a really good job of telling this story, using letters, diaries, court documents and conversations with survivors and their children and grandchildren [the slight twist at the end nearly broke my heart] and made you feel you were right there with Ray that morning Howard shot all those people. It makes you look at the people around you, makes you look at yourself - are you kind to those who are odd, or are you a bully? Does it cost anything to be kind? No. Would it have cost the people that died anything to be kind to Howard Unruh? No. Not at all. And while again I absolutely do not condone what he did and the horrors he caused for the immediate families and for generations, I have to wonder just would have happened if just one of those people that chose to bully Howard had chose kindness instead. It honestly makes me think about my own interactions. I hope it does the same for you.

I also received an audiobook ARC and WOW. Sometimes a narrator can totally make a book - they tell the story and said story come alive and you are transported there and you can barely surface because you are so sucked in and sometimes they cannot. Thankfully, John Chancer is the first one. He tells this story so well and I was totally engrossed every-time I was listening. He made the story come alive and really added to the words the author wrote. I am so grateful that I was able to listen to this book. SO Excellent.

Thank you to NetGalley, Ellen J. Green, John Chancer [Narrator], Thread Books, and Bookouture Audio for providing the ARCS in exchange for an honest review.

The story of Howard Unruh is an interesting one. However, this book (or audiobook) does not make it seem interesting. In fact, this retelling to what happened in 1949 is almost unbearably boring. The writing is dry and told from the point of view of Howard’s 12-year-old neighbor and friend, who was a witness to his killing spree. The narration is even worse. The narrator is monotone. If you’re expecting a retelling of a crime similar to a podcast, this isn’t it.

The first recorded mass shooting was by Howard Unruh in Camden, NJ on September 6th, 1949. Unruh killed 13 people that day, including 3 children. He shot 3 more that survived.

This was a well-researched true crime novel about what happened, what caused the shooting and the aftermath.

Howard, a veteran, had major signs of PTSD. After the war, he couldn’t keep a job or his girlfriend and moved back in with his mother. The townspeople bullied Howard, for years, because he was a bible carrying, odd man, closeted homosexual and was in general different. That is until one day, when he snapped. Howard had a list of people to target. He succeeded in killing almost everyone on that list. Most of the story was through Raymond’s point of view. Raymond was a you friend of Howards, and his life was spared when Howard saw him, but didn’t shoot him during the rampage. Most of this information is online if you search for Camden first mass shooting 1949. I did a bit of my own research as I read and was even more interested in the story.

I listened to the audiobook version and could not put it down. I was so engrossed in the story, I had to know what the outcomes were to certain actions. There were excerpts of Howards diary, eyewitness accounts, police records and psychiatric records. This was a heart-breaking story about bullying, mental health, revenge, and tragedy.

I think I would have enjoyed this one more in a physical or ebook format. I found myself zoning out towards the end as it felt like it just kept going on without any separation in the chapters. I liked the concept of the story, it's based on the first mass murder in the US, and somehow I hadn't heard about it. I'd love to give this book another try when the physical book publishers to try and understand the story a little better. Thank you to NetGalley for the advance audio of this one!

While the book is written in a such a strongly narrative style that it's almost distractingly hard differentiate between fact and speculation into the thoughts, conversations, and details of the lives involved in the case, it's engaging and moves along nicely. There also is a bit of a sense that things are stretched a bit longer than the story itself really dictates, especially when an important twist element is only introduced at the end and not explored as deeply as the question of the gate, which is turned over and referenced many times. There also seems to be quite a lot of sympathy toward Unruh, perhaps because of the perspectives chosen and the less factual style. Much more for true crime readers who enjoyed In Cold Blood than those who devoured I'll Be Gone in the Dark.

Such a sad poignant story, the narration was great and really helped emphasise with the characters giving a i site into the hate and prejudice he received. Although there was no excuse for what he done, it’s shows the background of it all and how people are pushed to breaking point ,

*Many thanks to Ellen J. Green, Thread, and Netgalley for arc audio in exchange for my honest review.*
A thorough account of what is believed to have been the first recorded mass shooting in the US. The author did a thorough research of all available documents and witnesses' accounts to describe the man behind the tragedy that affected in 1949 a small comunity of East Camden, New Jersey. The motif for killing 13 innocent people within 12 minutes is manifold and though no excuse can be provided, Ms Green does not judge the killer but offers insight into his life and complicated relations with himself and the times in which he lived.